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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Bonds, McGwire and Sosa put up six seasons between them with more than 61 home runs, the old record held by Maris. Absent the steroid era, Maris would still have the record. If Maris were in the Hall, while the steroid triplets were kept out, it would be fitting way to honour the real home run record — held by a decent man who brought honour to the game.

Yet Roger Maris is not in the Hall of Fame, despite his record, despite being a two-time league MVP, despite ...

Sometime in late March or early April, 1911, Charley [Faust] set out for Wichita, Kansas (the nearest “big city”), in search of some diversion from the drudgery of farm routine. There he found a fortune teller who, for five dollars, told him he would become the greatest pitcher the world had ever known if he would join the New York Giants. Three times she told him this, and added that when he had established himself and helped the Giants to win a pennant, ...

On July 25, 2011 the National Football League finally laid baseball to rest. Not only did players and owners agree to a new collective bargaining agreement, but they did so with emphasis - as if to prove one last time that football, not baseball, is now America’s game.

Whether it was a power play or mere coincidence I do not know, but it is clear the timing of ...

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Doug Siskiyou chipmunks are go! Stan Isaacs finally gets around to visiting Citi Field for the first time…

I was back in New York recently for my first look at the Mets’ new ball park, the second-year Citi Field. My first reaction was that-like all the new ball parks-it seemed as if as many people were at the food stands eating as were in the stands watching the game.

...The Mets hit three balls off the outfield fences against the Phillies for doubles; they would have been home runs in just ...

Anyone who has ever been to a Mariners game will remember Rick. With the death of Dave Niehaus last year, and The Peanut Man this year, the two most loved figures associated with the team who never wore the uniform are now gone…

Rick Kaminski, known to generations of Mariners fans as The Peanut Man, working games since the team’s first season in 1977, has died.

Kaminski, 67, was hospitalized this week after a brain aneurysm. His partner, Candi Mindt-Keener, announced Wednesday that he died ...

Ervin Santana turned in a performance Wednesday that won’t soon be forgotten, pitching a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in a 3-1 Angels win.

Santana was as efficient as he was dominating, needing just 105 pitches—76 of them strikes—to give the Angels their first complete-game no-hitter since Mike Witt’s perfect game at Texas in 1984. And the Indians came close to a hit just once, when Howie Kendrick made a sliding, back-handed stop of Jason Kipnis’ ground ball leading off the sixth ...

“Brian Cashman called me up this past week and asked what we’d be willing to give up for Robinson Cano, but before I could even answer, he said, ‘Whatever it is, it wouldn’t be enough, because we just love the guy,’” an executive within the Blue Jays organization told reporters.

The Yankees signed autographs, posed for the pictures with the kids, and even engaged in a couple games of ping pong.

But then things really got interesting. After taking a big group photo—including all the Yankees, and all the children—water balloons were distributed to everyone. Now, I had seen the buckets of water balloons earlier, and (naturally?) assumed we were going to play a harmless game of water balloon toss—you know, to see which pair could toss and catch the balloon the longest ...

CHICAGO—The Chicago White Sox have traded starting pitcher Edwin Jackson and infielder Mark Teahen to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for reliever Jason Frasor and minor leaguers, which is expected to be the precursor of a deal that would send Cardinals center fielder Colby Rasmus to Toronto.

Soap operas are being taken off network TV, but at least we still have baseball.

By the way he’s portrayed, you’d expect St. Louis center fielder Colby Rasmus to be the guy with the badly dyed goatee and have ominous music every time he appears on screen. That’s at least the way Cardinals manager Tony La Russa (speaking of bad dye jobs) keeps playing it.

The latest barb? Speaking to KSDK-TV in St. Louis, La Russa said Rasmus doesn’t listen to the team’s coaches.

Sabathia won his major-league-high 15th game. That is what aces do, and this is why Sabathia has the edge over all other AL starters this year, including the incredible Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander.

You can point to Verlander’s statistical advantages over Sabathia, and the Angels’ Jered Weaver is rolling, but give CC the edge. If Verlander or Weaver outduels CC the last nine weeks, give ‘em the Cy Young, but right now it is ...

One month ago today, on an idyllic day in Southern California, Davey Johnson walked into the Washington Nationals dugout and managed his first baseball game in 11 years. He loved every minute, he said afterward, even though they lost. He savored the challenge and could not wait for more.

After the 10-game stretch coming out of the all-star break, some of that verve, at least outwardly, has drained from Johnson. It is hard to love every minute of ...

Monkey Business starring Miss Lois L’oreal! (and look for the blonde bombshell in the sequel The Sixty Year Pitch!)

It’s been locked in a box and stored in a closet for the best part of half a century. But this baseball is expected to fetch at least $20,000 when it is sold at auction

This is no ordinary baseball. Not only is it signed by the New York Yankees baseball team – including legend Joe DiMaggio – it also still bears the lipstick of Marilyn Monroe from when the blonde bombshell ...

Last night’s Meals on Weals game that will forever leave a mark on Pirate fans…

Did I stay up until 2 a.m. watching the Pirates-Braves game that ended on the most controversial call since Jim Joyce ruined Armando Galarraga’s perfect game?

Yes, I did.

And it was something.

Twitter exploded immediately, with sympathy coming from across the country for America’s team. A Pirates fan who has lived in Italy for 19 years was watching the game and tweeted me in horror. Other Pirates fans called it ...

The longest winning streak in professional baseball history is history at 29 games. The Billings Mustangs…outlasted the [Salt Lake Trappers] 7-5 Monday night in Cobb Stadium before 4,219 fans.

...

The Trappers are now a remarkable 32-4 in the Pioneer League.

The Trappers actually had a losing record that year in games not played during the 29-game streak. Other odd facts about the 1987 Salt Lake Trappers: They pulled off the streak without the benefit of a Major ...

At some point later in the game, I happened across the following tweet from Joe Posnanski:

You get the feeling the Mariners will remember Loss No. 17 as the “time we got that hit off C.C. Sabathia.”
...
That single felt like a win. Of course that sounds stupid. Of course that sounds humiliating. But the loss was already all but official, and for me it was the first triumphant moment in weeks. It felt better than Miguel Olivo’s ...

The high-stakes arguments — the trustee is seeking $1 billion from Wilpon and Katz — are set to be heard, and perhaps decided, by Judge Jed S. Rakoff in United States District Court in Manhattan on Aug. 17. ...

Picard’s argument appears to result in part from the successful effort by Wilpon and Katz to transfer the trustee’s lawsuit from bankruptcy court to district court — a procedural victory for them.

Wilpon and Katz wanted the change so their dealings with Madoff might be ...

[Justin] Germano had a 5.65 ERA in 10 relief appearances for Columbus after struggling in the Indians bullpen this season. He gave up a Clippers’ season-high 12 hits in six innings during his start on Thursday.

Those woes didn’t affect him tonight. Germano, a 28-year-old righthander, threw a perfect game in Columbus’ 3-0 win at Syracuse. He struck out seven, including getting Corey Brown looking with his final pitch, in winning his first game of the season.

It was clear from the moment he was drafted that prospect Yonder Alonso’s bat would eventually force the Reds’ hand into getting him to the Major Leagues.

That time came on Tuesday when the Reds traded veteran left fielder Jonny Gomes to the Nationals for two Minor League players. In a corresponding move, Alonso—a left fielder and first baseman—was recalled from Triple-A Louisville.

“We actually had a couple of clubs that inquired about Jonny’s services, but Washington was probably the most ...

Eleven is the age at which athletics begin to evolve from a communal gathering into a selective pursuit. At 11, Little League is nearing its end and giving way to real baseball, with 90 feet between the bases and 60 feet, six inches to home plate, and those of us who possess the desire but lack the physicality and coordination are shunted aside. And so we seek substitutes, a way to replicate the experience that is still somehow tethered to reality. In the modern age, of course, this is the ...

Woo-hoo! Can’t wait for the Bryce Harper: Rookie on Trial comic book to come out!

Straight from the files of Terrible Perspective 101 comes this unbelievable gem: Two members of the Washington Nationals organization tell Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci that Bryce Harper is baseball’s most scrutinized prospect since ... Jackie Robinson.

Let’s go to the tape, shall we?:

Nats director of player development Doug Harris: “This is really unfair and it’s totally different, but if I can make a ...

U2 had a concert at Busch Stadium on July 17 and in preparation for the event the Cardinals had to strip the field and then afterward bring in new grass from Colorado, with the recent high temperatures making the re-sodding effort very difficult.

Before last night’s game groundskeeper Bill Findley told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch that the new grass “wasn’t healthy enough to put a pattern on it” and then during the game the visiting Astros fell ...

While they're not among the best teams in baseball, you'll be hard-pressed to find fans of the Cleveland Indians or Pittsburgh Pirates who are disappointed with how the season has gone so far. Neither club was expected to be serious contenders yet now find themselves in striking distance of a trip to the playoffs.
Other than being rebuilding franchises, one thing both have in common is that they have put together inexpensive, overachieving bullpens that have done a lot of fuel their teams' ...

And then there’s the guy with the beard. Where’s he? (Laughter.) I do fear it. (Laughter.) Have you guys seen the SportsCenter ad where it’s—ESPN—where it starts doing a dance? (Laughter.)

Now, underneath Brian’s beard, and the spandex tuxedo—(laughter)—and the sea captain costume, and the cleats with his face on them—is also one of the most dominant closers in baseball. (Applause.) And I do think, Brian, you should know that Michelle was very relieved that the press was going to ...

“It was probably the worst I’ve had here as a manager as far as runs scored against us,” said Ron Gardenhire, the Twins manager since 2002.

Kinsler had four of the Rangers’ league-best 27 hits as Texas became the first team to score 20 runs since Milwaukee beat Pittsburgh 20-0 on April 22 last season. The Rangers had 18 runs by the fifth inning as they scored three runs in each of the first three innings. Texas added five in the fourth and four in the ...

In a riotous doubleheader that saw Umpire Bill Summers felled and injured by one of more than a hundred missiles hurled upon the field by enraged fans, the New York Yankees overpowered the Chicago White Sox twice today.

..

A pop bottle hurled by an unidentified fan in the upper grandstand back of third base, where Summers was stationed, hit him in the groin and he collapsed.

That could have been one of the great viral videos of all time. Only thing that could have made it ...